Landis gets ilion at last

Official announcement made today

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ilion Group today accepted the take-over bid from fellow networking distributor Landis Holdings (UK). In an announcement to the stock exchange, Landis said its cash offer of £40.2 million, or 160 pence per share, for ilion had been declared unconditional in all respects. By 3pm yesterday, the closing date for the offer, Landis owned 83.6 per cent of the existing share capital of ilion. And Landis said it had acquired a further 9.2 per cent of the company since the buy-out offer was posted on 23 September, that had yet to be re-registered as Landis stock. Landis still intends for ilion to apply to the London Stock Exchange for its shares to be de-listed and to re-register it as a private company. This cancellation from the listing is expected to take effect on 12 November. The acceptance comes after Landis was forced to up its bid for the rival when its 114 pence per share offer in July was rejected as "totally unacceptable" by ilion. ilion later agreed to the revised offer of 160 pence on 15 September -- which represented a 70 per cent premium on ilion's share price on 14 April, the date ilion announced it was in talks with prospective buyers. ®